[dreadgeek]

Current state of things:

At noon local time (0400 GMT), Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), which operates the plant, gave this status report:

Reactor 1 - shut down, under inspection because of Saturday's explosion, sea water and boric acid being pumped in

Reactor 2 - water level "lower than normal", but stable

Reactor 3 - high pressure coolant injection was "interrupted"; but injection of sea water and boric acid were under way.

Later, officials said seawater and boric acid were also being pumped into reactor 2.

Materials for talking people down:

In the middle of such a confused and changing picture, what can safely be said?

Firstly, the reactors involved will not operate again, even if there has not been a meltdown.

Seawater is corrosive. But it clearly appears to the operators that it is the only available medium for keeping the cores cool.

(Comment: This is actually a fairly encouraging sign. I would be FAR more worried if the operators were trying to salvage the reactors. At this point, they are going to bring these things down and stop the reactions (thus the boron, see below)

Boric acid, meanwhile, is used because it absorbs neutrons, slowing down the residual nuclear activity. The term "acid" is not really relevant - it is the atoms of boron in the acid that do the job.

Secondly, the release of radioactive materials, whatever the route, is so far of only local importance.

Russian authorities, with territory to the north and west within 1,000km of the plant, say they have detected nothing abnormal.

Thirdly, levels of radioactivity - although above safe limits - are far lower than were detected during the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine, for example.

(Comment: We are not out of the woods yet. But the simple fact of them pumping sea water in gives us both a sense of how serious they are taking this (VERY seriously) and how critical the situation is (VERY). Like I said above, that they are willing to let the reactors die means that their *first* priority is preventing a meltdown, not salvaging the huge sums of money that the reactor cores represent. I'll feel better about it if by Tuesday it's clear that the sea water/boric acid combination has kept the reactors cool and slowed down the rate of reaction.)

Cheers
Aj